Born: Brooklyn , New York , 1970
Education
MFA, Rhode Island School of Design , Providence , RI , 1996
BA, Art Studio, Tulane University , New Orleans , LA , 1993
Selected Exhibitions & Screenings
2005 April Meetings, V.I.P. Gallery, Belgrade , Serbia
2004 Based on a True Story, Artists Space, New York , NY
Around Narrative, Kino Tuskanac, One Take Film Festival, Zagreb , Croatia
2003 Home-made: Video Screenings (Forced Entertainment), Kunstlerhaus Mousonturm, Frankfurt , Germany
Night of 1000 Drawings, Artist's Space, New York , NY
16th Annual Dallas Video Festival, Dallas Museum of Art , Dallas , TX
The Sonic Self, Chelsea Art Museum , New York , NY
Screening, Sugar, New York , NY
Pop Music & Art, Ward-Nasse Gallery , New York , NY
The Illuminated Self, Aquatic Creations, New York , NY
2002 My Father Told Me, Suite 106 (Popiashvili & Newman Gallery), New York , NY
Motion, 450 Gallery, New York , NY
Photo 2002, Monique Goldstrom Gallery , New York , NY
Monique Goldstrom Gallery Exhibition, Queensborough Community College , NY
Screening, Halcyon, Brooklyn , NY
Video Lounge: Narrative, Piet Zwart Institute, Willem de Kooning Academy, Holland
2001 Biennale d'Art Contemporain de Lyon 2001, Museum of Contemporary Art , France
Bodywrappinc. (Collaboration with Annette Meyer), Spiral Garden (Spiral Wacoal Art Center ), Tokyo , Japan
Bodywrappinc. (Collaboration with Annette Meyer), Kunsthal, Rotterdam , Holland
Inaugural Exhibition, Suite 106 (Popiashvili & Newman Gallery), New York , NY
Bodywrappinc. (Collaboration with Annette Meyer), Kyoto Art Center , Kyoto , Japan
2000 Somewhat Corrupt, Plaza Gallery, Fordham University , New York , NY
American Living Room Film and Video Salon, HERE Art Center , New York , NY
Black Box Video Shorts, The College Art Gallery , Ewing , NJ
Visual Elements-Observing the work of 27 Artists, My Sister's Room, Atlanta , GA
1999 Nomadic Nights: Home Screen Home, Cartier Foundation (Foundation Cartier Pour l'Art
Contemporain), Paris, France
Sitcom: Compromising Positions, Galerie Montenay-Giroux, Paris, France
Home Screen Home, John Baldessari 4RMS W VU , National Museum (Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia ), Madrid , Spain
The Photographic Persona, University of Louisville, Allen R. Hite Art Institute, Louisville , KY
Knotes on Moving Images: Speaking in Public, 57 Hope Gallery, Brooklyn , NY
Sitcom: Compromising Positions, Anton Weller Gallery, Paris , France
1998 Home Screen Home, John Baldessari 4RMS W VU , Museum of Contemporary Art (MACBA), Barcelona , Spain
Screening, Osmos , Berlin , Germany
Home Screen Home, John Baldessari 4RMS W VU , Witte de With (in association with the International Film Festival), Rotterdam , Holland
Knotes on Moving Images: Speaking in Public, 57 Hope Gallery, Brooklyn , NY
Knotes on Moving Images: Speaking in Public, Knitting Factory, Brooklyn , NY
Space-Time Discontinuum, Taos Talking Picture Festival, Taos , NM
The Computer in Art, Edison State College , Piqua , OH
1997 Film Society of Lincoln Center : 6th Annual Video Festival: High Tech-Lo Fi, Lincoln Center , Walter Reade Theater , New York , NY
10th Annual Dallas Video Festival, The Texas Show and Jewish Families, Dallas Museum of Art , Dallas , TX
12 Minutes Max: The Text and Image, Diverse Works, Houston , TX
Rhode Island School of Design Alumni Show, Fishbone Gallery, Atlanta , GA
4th Annual Jewish Film Festival, Judah Magnes Museum , Berkeley , CA
Providence Filmmaker's Film Festival, AS220, Providence , RI
Film Society of Lincoln Center : Lunchtime at the Wall, Thundergulch: Arts & Technology Bldg., 55 Broad Street , New York , NY
1996 Reconstructions: New Alternative Documentaries, Mobius, Boston , MA
PhotoVideo , Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, RI
MFA Exhibition, Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, RI
From Fact to Fiction, Video Space, Boston , MA
1994 Photography Biennial, Woods Gerry Gallery, Providence, RI
Art by the Inch, Sol Koffler Gallery, Providence , RI
1993 Art for Art's Sake, Icons Gallery, New Orleans, LA
Selected Bibliography
Anne Bertrand, "John Clare, forét, amours, folie-poésie" (Photo), Vacarme (n.25, p.100), Paris France , Autumn, 2003
Nuit Banai, "Mobilizing Difference", NY Arts Magazine (p.42), New York , NY , June, 2003
Andrzej Adamczewski, "Zakrecona”, Zycie Pabianic (p.6), Pabianice , Poland , April 3, 2003
Manuel Mendoza, "Dallas Video Festival-Worth Watching this Weekend", Dallas Morning News (p.4J), Dallas , TX , March 21, 2003
Pal Moore , "Motion", NY Arts Magazine (Vol.7#4), New York, NY , April, 2002
Anne Bertrand, "Un Monde", Biennale de Lyon, Connivence, 2001 Catalog (pp. 27-28), Lyon, France, September, 2001
Anne Bertrand, “Home Screen Home. Programme de Videos Realisees par des Artists Pour la Television Entre 1970-1999”, Parachute Magazine (#96, pp. 62), Montreal, Quebec, Oct/Dec., 1999
Bruce Nixon, "The Photographic Persona", Visual Arts (p. 42), Lousiville , KY , December 8, 1999
Awards & Honors
New York Foundation for the Arts Fiscal Sponsorship: "Gabriel-Nine Years in the Life of a Boy", 2001-2004
2nd Place, "Family Portraits", Judah Magnes Museum's 4th Annual Jewish Video Competition, Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive, Berkeley, CA, June 1997
Sidney E. and Ruby Shayn Blumenthal Scholarship, 1993
Richard Koch Art Scholarship, 1992
The animal drawings in Alaeff's Evolution of Despair project explore the tragicomic human predilection for negative and often
destructive emotions. Although these emotions might have had, or still might have, an evolutionary imperative, it often seems as though they are out of proportion and/or misaligned with any modern need for survival. Animals clearly have a wide range of emotions, however, it’s funny and sad to imagine them having ones as insane as ours.
In a traditional Rorschach Test, the image projected onto an "neutral" ink-blot is supposed to reveal to a therapist something hitherto obscured from the patient—theoretically, an unresolved conflict in their heart, mind or soul. In Alaeff’s War on the Brain series, Rorschach drawings are not meant to be neutral. Hidden within these ink-blots are actual images of conflict and war—they are not immediately obvious, but once discovered, they are impossible to disregard.
The ink-blot itself is a mirror image. The left and right-hand sides are imperfect identical twins, diametrically opposed. In the abstract, this mirroring creates a beautiful but “meaningless” symmetrical pattern—a pattern that can educe a recognizable picture from the viewer’s inner world. A man with a gun, however, when mirrored, quickly finds himself in a perpetual life-or-death standoff with his alter ego-turned nemesis.
Focusing on these dialectics, this project is a meditation on the nature of harmony and conflict-- within the “self” and within the world—and, most importantly, it is about the relationship between the two. This project is also a study of “neutrality” and “bias” in the formation of one’s worldview,
as well as a critique of the Rorschach Test itself (or tests in general) as a means to gain unbiased insights into these unknowns.
"What justification is there for assuming that any given interpretation of an ink-blot does not issue from a part of the self bent on deceiving others, or on deceiving oneself for that matter?"
--Skeptic’s Dictionary
